Kanchiyodu Jayan’s career as an announcer in All India Radio (AIR) started in 1989, a good 10 years after the British band ‘The Buggles’ released their hit single ‘Video killed the radio star’. A quarter century down the line, he is still a radio star with a voice which has literally woken up and upped the spirits of the radio listeners in the city every morning.
In a career which started in the pre-cable television era and which is still far from over in the mobile Internet era, he has stood out for his presentation style which has more than a tinge of an influence of Kathaprasangam.
All set to complete 25 years as a radio announcer this Sunday, Mr. Jayan spoke to The Hindu on his early days and everyday challenges of the job. “I landed here accidentally. I was doing my B.Ed. and was planning to become a college lecturer, when my teacher told me about a newspaper advertisement for a job in All India Radio. I started my career as an announcer and I will retire as one, as we do not have promotions, only grade changes,” he says.
Music shows has been his forte having anchored popular shows like ‘ganopaharam,’ ‘ganamrutham,’ ‘mazhavillu’ and ‘ranjini.’ One of the attractions of his presentation style is the way he quickly recalls the situation in which a particular song requested by a listener comes in the film. This, laced with titbits on the musician or the lyricist, got him many fans. “Ever since I started my career, I have been regularly maintaining diaries with all the details about any song I chance upon. It helps in anchoring shows,” Mr. Jayan says. The ‘Radio Souhrida Vedi’, a collective of radio listeners in the city, will be organising a cultural evening in his honour at the Senate Hall on Sunday evening. With eight years to go till his retirement, he has certainly proved ‘The Buggles’ wrong.
